


after the chang clan

by Val Mora (valmora)



Category: Old Kingdom - Garth Nix, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Old Kingdom Fusion, Gen, One Shot, literary merit and canon compliance are overrated, single-scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:13:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28116735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valmora/pseuds/Val%20Mora
Summary: The house was full of the Dead. It was all the three of them could do to restrain the bodies, which were now full of lesser Dead spirits. Without the Abhorsen, the best they could do would be to destroy the bodies so that the spirits would have to go back into Death.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	after the chang clan

The house was full of the Dead. It was all the three of them could do to restrain the bodies, which were now full of lesser Dead spirits. Without the Abhorsen, the best they could do would be to destroy the bodies so that the spirits would have to go back into Death. 

And then there was the ringing of the bell. The sweetness of it like a lullaby, like coming home to a warm fire and a warm bed, and a friend to have for company. 

Lan Wangji manifested his guqin and played a low, rumbling note that made a Charter spell for protection.

"Necromancer," Jiang Wanyin hissed. Lan Wangji dismissed his guqin and readied his Charter-spelled sword, reaching into the charter for marks of binding, and felt Wei Wuxian do so as well.

The Free Magic sorcerer was a good fighter as well as a necromancer, with the seven bells strapped to his chest that he pulled out and tried to ring as they fought. After the second time, Lan Wangji set away Bichen and sat with his guqin, attempting to cancel the Free Magic of the bells as they were rung.

A stranger joined the fight. At first Lan Wangji was wary, but then he saw that this stranger bore a glowing Charter mark on his forehead, and wore no bells. His power and swordwork were very skilled, and it seemed like the four of them would defeat the necromancer.

Until the necromancer laughed, and rang the fourth bell, Dyrim, and all Wangji's strings went silent.

Into the ringing and clashing of the swords, the sharp reek of Free Magic, and Lan Wangji's growing concern, rang another bell, this one redolent with Charter as well as Free Magic. Its passing left Lan Wangji sleepy, too, but less affected, as the caster's will had not been focused upon him. The necromancer jerked aside and swore, and unbuttoned another bell's pouch, but then sang a lower, more somber bell, and the necromancer stopped, eyes glittering, sword still outstretched and fingers only touching the bandolier on his chest.

"Tie him," said the Abhorsen, coming to land in the courtyard. "I will take his bandolier." The Charter mage who was the Abhorsen's companion took the necromancer's arms and bound them behind his back with rope. 

When this was done, the Abhorsen released his will, and the necromancer spat, "Abhorsen."

"I carry that title for now," said the Abhorsen, deftly unstrapping the bells from the necromancer's chest, not wincing even at the touch of Free Magic bound in them. "There will be others after me."

"He may be carrying a Free Magic artefact of great power," said Wei Wuxian. "We should search him."

Lan Wangji had never met the Abhorsen, in the Wallmakers' compound outside Belisaere or otherwise. But he knew that Xiao Xingchen, disciple of Baoshan Sanren, was the current Abhorsen. Lan Wangji also knew that Xiao Xingchen and his companion Song Lan, a Charter mage of great skill and power, traveled the Old Kingdom to keep down the Dead. Several bards had written songs of their exploits - how Song Lan had held off three Dead Hands with both sword and Charter while Xiao Xingchen went into Death and destroyed the necromancer who had been terrorizing a farming village; another, on similar lines, where their swords alone had brought to a standstill a group of Dead who had emerged at a broken Charter Stone, before Xiao Xingchen's bells had sent the Dead aside. Song Lan had also saved a town from a Free Magic creature on his own, when Xiao Xingchen had been injured. They were beloved of the people, and Lan Wangji admired them.

The necromancer's eyes glittered as Wei Wuxian began to pat him down.


End file.
